OSHA prescribes a number of safety measures which must be taken to protect workers while a building is under construction, and these may also serve to protect other persons, such as an owner or prospective purchaser who wishes to see the building while under construction. Among these are requirements for temporary guard railings to be erected along the edges of floor surfaces where there is no wall or other restraint, and from which there is a sufficient vertical drop to present a serious hazard should a person fall from the edge of the floor surface.
Undesirable amounts of time and materials may be used where the temporary guard railing is constructed in a conventional manner, i.e., from wood mounted to the building being constructed. Additional time is spent in removing the temporary guard railing when it is no longer needed, and even if some of the materials from that temporary railing can be re-used, it is usually necessary to disassemble that material and reconstruct a guard rail from the reused material.
It can be appreciated that the construction of a guard rail requires the erection of a series of vertical posts to which the lateral railings and toe boards, where required, are connected. Such posts must be firmly secured to the floor surface and fairly rigid. OSHA requires that such posts must be capable of withstanding, without failure, 200 pounds of pressure applied within two inches of the top of a forty-two inch post in an outward or downward direction. Thus, in conventional construction methods, the post would have to be securely braced with respect to the floor surface, e.g., by a plurality of wooden struts.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,560,588 ('588 patent), incorporated herein by reference for all purposes, discloses a support which eases the construction of such temporary guard railing, helps to insure the required strength and rigidity of the railing, and makes it easier for materials to be moved onto the floor bounded by the guard railing. Furthermore, the support, preferably along with a post connected thereto, can be readily removed and re-used. The support, whether in its initial use or re-use obviates some of the more difficult and time consuming aspects of conventional rail construction techniques, and its re-usability is therefore particularly time and cost effective, and all the more so when the post connected thereto can also be re-used without disassembly from the support.
The support of the '588 patent comprises a base adapted to be removably attached to a floor surface, and support walls upstanding from the base and defining therebetween an upwardly opening socket for receipt of a post. The base of the support of the '588 patent can be quickly and easily secured in place and removed, as by wood screws passing through holes in the base and into the floor.
No matter the design, strength, or convenience of the prefabricated support, the guardrail will fail to meet OSHA standards if it is not properly affixed to the floor surface. The different surface to which the supports are affixed, e.g., concrete, particle board, and wood, require different fasteners, e.g., lag screws, masonry fasteners, or concrete anchors. All such fasteners require the use of washers, typically fender washers. Washers can fall out of packages or be misplaced during the assembly/disassembly of the guardrails. Affixing the support to the floor surface without washers or with incorrect washers compromises the guardrail's ability to meet OSHA standards.